Su-24 Fencer

The Soviet swing-wing tactical bomber that Ukraine improbably turned into its single hardest-hitting weapon — a heavy 1970s strike jet re-armed with British Storm Shadow and French SCALP-EG cruise missiles, then used to strike deep into occupied Crimea and gut Russia's Black Sea Fleet, including its Sevastopol headquarters. In the words of one analysis, Ukraine took "the most obsolete aircraft they have" and made it "the most potent strike system they have."

Overview

The Su-24 (NATO: Fencer) is a twin-engine, two-seat, variable-geometry ("swing-wing") tactical strike bomber — the Soviet rough analogue to the American F-111. Designed for high-speed, low-level penetration to deliver ordnance under enemy radar, it was for decades the Soviet and Russian air forces' principal tactical bomber. Ukraine inherited a Fencer fleet in 1991 and, by 2022, regarded it as an aging, attrition-prone type. Its war changed in mid-2023, when Ukraine integrated Western air-launched cruise missiles onto the Su-24, making it the launch platform for the longest-range standoff weapons Kyiv possessed — and, with that, one of the most strategically consequential aircraft of the war despite being one of its oldest.

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